Inclusion Projects – Kicks

Every night of the week, our staff are at various locations in Oldham delivering our Kicks sessions with over 250 young people per week attending the sessions.

Despite the late nights, we are extremely lucky to have a dedicated and passionate workforce who deliver these sessions throughout the year.

Kicks is a nationwide project ran currently by 42 clubs, funded in partnership with the Premier League and Sport England. Kicks is aimed at working with young people from different areas and giving young people something positive to do during evenings. The project aims to provide positive role models from the local areas and give different opportunities to young people through the power of sport.

Our current Kicks session schedule is:

Monday Sholver Youth Centre 6-8pm Street Dance

Tuesday Oldham College 6-8pm Football

Tuesday Royton Youth Centre 6-8:30pm Football/Youth Club

Wednesday Honeywell Centre 6-7:45pm Football/Youth Club

Thursday Robin Hill 6-8pm Youth Club

Thursday OASIS Academy 6-8pm Football

Friday Stoneleigh Park 6-8pm Football/Youth Club

Saturday Oldham College 7:9pm Football

Saturday Honeywell Centre 7-9pm Football

All of the above sessions are completely free for the young people to attend.

Recently a group of young people from our Coldhurst Kicks played a group of young people from the Rio Foundation in an 11-a-side friendly at Chapel Road. This was just the latest in opportunities for the young people in the project. In previous years, young people have been visited Stamford Bridge as well as playing on the Boundary Park pitch and even competing in national tournaments against clubs like Manchester City and Liverpool.

Three young people from our Kicks project have recently begun their coaching career as they have successfully passed their FA Level One Football Coaching Qualification.

The trio have regularly attended Kicks for over two years and have constantly shown a desire and passion to learn more about the work we do and progress as individuals. As a result of passing the course, the young people are now undertaking voluntary work with us here at the Community Trust as they gain experience and knowledge and also now give something back to their local community. Foysol Ahmed, who has been volunteering with us for over a year, is now working on our new Kicks session in Hathershaw to act as a role model and to show just what can be achieved by having the right attitude and desires.

We are extremely proud of our mentoring programme through Kicks. In addition to the recent good news, we also have the success stories of Rofique Miah and Shitu Miah. The pair both started to attend sessions in Coldhurst five years ago and now coach full time in Qatar.

Rofique and Shitu became volunteers for the project after the Kicks staff noticed their drive and ambition to learn and progress. Both then went onto gain various coaching qualifications as part of Kicks – they attained their FA Level One and Two coaching badges, as well as qualifying to coach basketball and boxing.

Along their journey, both Rofique and Shitu made the transition from volunteers to being paid members of staff for the Community Trust. They went from young people hanging around the street to a full-time job overseas.